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sometimes I don’t even believe it myself

Look, I promise the following conversation happened, I just can’t give any details about where it occurred:

I arrived at my destination hankering to tweet something…and got distracted by the conversation that followed. You see, I was driving through a little town outside metropolitan Atlanta when I encountered a pedestrian walking what seemed to be a little nervous dog. I was still a ways away, so I figured it was a nutty little Boston Terrier (I’ve recently befriended one, and found the breed to be delightfully nutty) or a wild little Jack Russell, like my daughter’s little puppy.

I was wrong.

This proud citizen was walking a chicken. On. A. Leash.

Who can believe this?

So I get where I’m going, and I’m trying to tweet, only I’m laughing myself into a silly state of ineptitude with the phone…and share what I’m laughing about, and that’s when I get the second surprise of the evening.

It turns out that walking a chicken on a leash is not only not weird, it’s commonplace around here!

Here’s a snippet of the conversation:

Woman #1: Y’all need to go down to the flea market on Moreland. They all bring their pet chickens on leashes. And they’re dressed up, too!

Woman #2: The chickens are dressed up? In clothes? What kind of clothes does a chicken wear?

Woman #1: Same as you’d put on a gerbil.

[okay, I need to stop here and ponder this a bit. What would one put on a gerbil? The astounding thing about all of this is how naturally accepting these folks were of all the components of this weirdness]

Woman #2, incredulous, to her credit: Gerbil clothes?! What kind of clothes do you put on a gerbil?